We have been making juniper furniture/home accessories for 3 years now and ready to embark on something bigger——- a headboard made out of twisted juniper. So my question is how do you make sure it is going to sit square when none of the wood is straight? WE will be using the mortise and tennon cutters for joining but are unsure how to line everything up. Any ideas would be appreciated

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7 replies so far

I’d build a full size rectangular box temple that mimics the dimensions of the mattice and box springs. elevate it to the correct height and use it as a place to design, place, assembly and build your piece around.

THANK YOU!! This will be a great start and gives us some reference. Since most of what we do is free form we really havent had to make something this exact… THanks again I appreciate the help. Have a great one!

So what are you thinking?......a free form headboard similar to your other work? (absolutely wonderful idea) Just make the juniper head board, keep in mind the area that will be hidden by the bed, unless the bed is designed to sit in the center of the room. You know what may look neat, if the juniper appeared to grow out of the wall…..tall and sinuous… I think the bed frame itself will be hidden by the bedding, so the rails can be conventional ….I am sure that the connection points on the juniper headboard will not be typical, but it is ok to have different bed rail lengths, run them wild and then work back wards from the foot to get the correct matteress dimensions …. does that make sense? maybe I could do a simple sketch…..regardless this is an incredible idea…...how about a juniper four post bed…with the lamps buit into the legs…i’m still thinking sinuous….some of the rustic themed pieces have a tendency to get alittle busy for my taste…but the finishing your doing and the contrast that is achieved is wonderful…

When we makes these head boards and foot boards, they will be attached to a standard metal frame since it will be covered by the bedding anyway. It will be free form, all natural curves and angles. We have seen juniper beds before and some of them can be very busy, but you can keep them tastefull and appealing. We have also had the idea to use large corner post to attach lamps and small tables as well. The first step however is to get the head board so it sits sqaure on the floor and flush as possible against the wall. I am thinking about making a headbard for ourselves first, that way if there are a few mistakes, it wont be that big of a deal and we wont feel pressured. THanks Harold!

you know…..maybe just make a wall piece that will serve as your headboard to get a feel for it…...then just a simple metal bedframe for now….on the four poster…..what if it stretched all the way to the ceiling…..I’m seeing a simple platform….with the juniper heardboard growing from it…...maybe ebonize the wood for the platform bed pieces…....like a full scale juniper bonsai sculpture…..